The disease occurs usually at Aged 40 to 70 and hurt 5 people out of 100 000. the sickness can hurt even more young ages.

5 to 10 percent of the cases are called familial ALS.
20 percent of them are diagnosed with genetic damage of the antioxidant enzyme SOD. Superoxide dismutase-1.

(Sung JJ et al 2002, Rosen DR et al 1993)

Symptoms

The disease causes degeneration of the movements nervous system , where signals moves from the brain and spine to the body muscles .

The disease initially affects the hands and there is difficulty in bathing ,dressing. sometimes affects the neck, causing difficulty in swallowing. If it hits the legs, there are difficulties in walking.

Free radicals are components that are not stable, with an odd number of electrons that tend to pull electrons from other molecules, especially those in cell membranes.

Free radical damage the nervous system in the ALS type familial. This happens when the gene SOD is not functioning.

When this enzyme deficient, free radicals cause oxidative damage to the nerve cells.

Researchers found that patients with a sporadic ALS suffer similar side effects such ALS familial patients such accumulation of calcium between cells, accumulation of proteins and mitochondrial damage .

Cameron A et al 2002

.

Toxicity Galutamate

The Glutomate neurotransmitter required for proper functioning of the brain due to his role between cell connection.
Normally the concentration of glutamate is regulated.
In a stroke or muscle cramps, a high amount of the neurotransmitter is secreted the to space between the cell nerve . This high amount can cause nerve mortality.

ALS patients have high level of neurotransmitter glutamate . the neurotransmitter glutamate is responsible for transferring 75 percent of the information created by nerve stimulation. The uniqueness of the neurotransmitter glutamate is that it can cause so hard irritation nerve, until neuron injury.

In Als patients there is information that neurotransmitter glutamate does not function properly.

Rothstein JD 1995

Study found that ALS patients have 70 percent increase in glutamate plasma level compared to a control group .. Plaitakis et al. 1993
glutamate exist in high level in monosodium Glutomate problematic and synthetic flavorings.

Nelson et al. 2000 .

The large amounts of the neurotransmitter gluamate allows to more calcium to enter the cells. Excess of calcium causes intense cellular activity and causes the creation of free radicals.

Supplements can reduce the levels of the neurotransmitter glutamate.

Doble A 1999; Rothstein JD 1995; Martin D et al 1993

Damage to mitochondria

mitochondrion are the energy factories in the cells. They are responsible for creating the ATP, the energy the body's cell activity, removing free radicals, and regulation of intracellular calcium concentration.

ALS patients have a change in the mitochondrion.
Menzies FM et al 2002

Abnormal activity of mitochondrion leads to creation of free radicals or increasing the level of calcium between cells.

their are Supplements which help to functioning proper activity of mitochondrion.

Environmental pollution of heavy metals

Although there is debate about whether the disease causes by environmental pollution. There are studies that have found such a link . ther are studies that did not found any link.
I will note the studies that identified such a connection.

Gresham LS et al 1986

It was found that people exposed to pesticides including synthetic agricultural fertilizer were hurt twice than control group that do not exposed to these chemicals.

Baker 1996; McGuire et al.1997

Xeno biotic chemicals such as toluene, xylene, hexanes, benzene, trichloroethane, styrene, phytates, pesticides. are lipophile componentsthat that can penetrate into the brain membranes and can cause nerve damage.

Many pesticides are designed to operate on the nervous system of living ¸ attacking the vegetation in agriculture activity. these materials can express in even weeks from the moment of exposure.

Prazmo 1978; Ames et al.1995; Keifer et al.1997).

Penetration of aluminum to the body also can cause disease. source come from money paper, pharmaceutical, beverage cans, deodorants, and more …

Yasui et al. 1991a

Research found that to much mercury accumulated in the body may connect to ALS .

Mano Y et al 1990

In Lyme disease and poliomyelitis's there is problem of inflammatory symptoms. the disease are similar to ALS, so the assumption is that the infection originated from the stress oxidation.

(Garcia-Moreno et al. 1997).

conventional treatmentThe medicinethat treat Als colled is Riluzole.

this medicine has proven to extend life expectancy in patients with ALS for two months ..

(Lacomblez L et al 1996).

Is stem cell therapy is the hope of healing the disease?.

Stem cells are immature cells that can become a specific body cell.
U.S. government bans stem cell therapy. only few researches done on curing ALS using stem cells.
anyway two studies in laboratory animals provide hope.